A 1985 Lincoln Town Car limo in great condition provides the get-up-and-go — such as it is — for the pedestrian Israeli film “Metallic Blues.” Apparently the screenplay was found in the trunk under the jack, for this movie is a throwback to a time when underdeveloped scripts were the bane of Israeli cinema.
Writer-director Danny Verete (“Yellow Asphalt”) marries two tired formulas — the buddy comedy and the road trip — in a tepid stab at exploring Germany’s lingering psychological effect on adult children of Holocaust survivors. If “Metallic Blues” holds one’s interest, it’s in the vain hope that an inspired gag or poignant insight lies around the next corner.
“Metallic Blues” screens three times at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, in a co-presentation of the Israel Center of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and Congregation Beth Am of Los Altos Hills.
When a white-haired Arab gent pulls into Siso and Shmuel’s used-car lot in the mammoth Lincoln, the Israelis conclude that they’ve won the lottery.
A German specialty dealer lists the value of the car at $50,000, so the duo pay the owner $5,000 in expectation of a quick trip abroad and a big profit.
From the outset, Varete does little to make his nondescript characters distinctive or edgy. They aren’t the fast-talking, faster-thinking Israeli hustler-entrepreneurs we recognize from other movies (or Los Angeles), nor are they shlemiels who screw up everything they touch.
They’re ordinary, unmemorable guys given one flimsy scene apiece with their families to establish the motivations and pressures that accompany their big deal.
Siso (veteran star Moshe Ivgy, also onscreen in the festival in the terrific “Campfire”) is a risk-averse plodder who glimpses a chance to ease his family’s cramped living conditions. He can use the dough to enclose the balcony, giving his teenage daughter a room that she doesn’t have to share with her young siblings.
Shmuel (stand-up comic Avi Kushnir) and his wife have no children and live comfortably. His risk in going to Germany is not financial but emotional, for his parents lost several relatives during the Holocaust.
Needless to say, the Israelis run into a few hitches in Germany trying to convert their metallic-blue asset into cash. Incredibly, Shmuel and Siso never take responsibility for their lack of preparedness and poor judgment. They continually act like children, and squander our sympathy in the process.
Ultimately, the duo’s tribulations force Shmuel to confront and resolve his fear and loathing of the evil empire that is Germany.
In the recent Israeli drama “Walk on Water,” the main character also takes an implausible and uneasy trip to Germany. Both films portray the idea that Jews should steer clear of Germany as not only an anachronism but an albatross.
It eventually becomes clear even to Shmuel that the Germany of his imagination (and of family anecdote) bears no relation to modern Germany. In a sense, “Metallic Blues” is a horror film without a monster.
The moment Shmuel realizes that should be profoundly affecting. Instead, it has all the punch of a Corolla reaching a cruising speed of 30 mph.
“Metallic Blues” screens 10 p.m. Saturday, July 23 at the Castro Theatre, 8 p.m. Sunday, July 31 at the Mountain View Century and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tickets: $9-$11. (925) 275-9490 or www.sfjff.org.